Application of Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (MSM) Photodetectors for Transverse and Longitudinal Intra-Bunch Beam Diagnostics

The performance reach of modern accelerators is often governed by the ability to reliably measure and control the beam stability. In high-brightness lepton and high-energy hadron accelerators, the use of optical diagnostic techniques is becoming more widespread as the required bandwidth, resolution and high RF beam power level involved limit the use of traditional electro-magnetic RF pick-up based methods. This contribution discusses the use of fibre-coupled ultra-fast Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Photodetectors (MSM-PD) as an alternative, dependablemeans to measure signals derived from electro-optical and synchrotron-light based diagnostics systems. It describes the beam studies performed at CERN’s CLIC Test Facility (CTF3) and the Australian Synchrotron to assess the feasibility of this technology as a robust, wide-band and sensitive technique for measuring transverse intra-bunch and bunch-by-bunch beam oscillations, longitudinal beam profiles, un-bunched beam population and beam-halo profiles. The amplification schemes, achieved sensitivities, linearity, and dynamic range of the detector setup are presented.